Well I am uneducated too.
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I’m going to try mosquito barrier. Pretty cheap and i’ll use it all summer on some of my berries anyway. https://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Barrier-Hunting-Netting-Protect/dp/B00MB8YIBQ/ref=sr_1_116?dchild=1&keywords=netting&qid=1611166875&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-116
These look awesome if you’ve got a bunch of cash that needs to be burned:
https://www.amazon.com/Tierra-Garden-50-3540-Haxnicks-Fruit/dp/B01LW5C5C1/ref=sr_1_49_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=fruit%2Btree%2Bnetting&qid=1611169304&sr=8-49-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzTUpEOVNCODhMN1pWJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDQzNTU3RVVXSTNQT1VGSDRKJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAxNzU0MjUyVkFST1BCQklYVktaJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmX25leHQmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl&th=1
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Another Brood X link - with a map, and a state/county list
So, this looks like east Tennessee and not middle Tennessee is where brood X emerges.
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Yep, the highest concentration for sure. Maybe some stragglers in middle TN.
I plan on walking my orchards every couple of days with a can of Sevin dust. Only have about 15-20 trees that I planted last fall that I’ll try to protect. We’ll see how that works. 
@greyphase
Spraying is not effective.
TOO many , they just keep coming .
On small trees , a bag made of remay , or other fine netting , ,Covering trees, is the way to go.
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I didn’t get very many new trees this year for this reason, last time I had a bunch of young trees and they made a mess of it.
I agree that spraying doesn’t do much, unless you want to spray every couple of hours.
This year my Plan A is to coat the trees with Surround, in particular the undersides of the pencil-sized shoots they prefer, and hope they decide to fly elsewhere. If that is not working I will wrap all the younger trees in row cover and give up on the older trees.
Here is a study on Surround where it reduced by half: PREVENTING PERIODICAL CICADA DAMAGE TO NURSERY STOCK IN THE FOOTHILLS OF NORTH CAROLINA. My guess is they didn’t hit the undersides as well as they could have, I hope I can do better than 50%.
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Super helpful to have some evidence on Surround efficacy- thanks!
I’ll protect with some mesh fabric where I can and try surround other areas, but I’m wondering about three things and am curious if others have thoughts/strategies on them.
For grafting: I’m wondering about grafting this year. Specifically I’m planning on grafting some plums and pawpaws on in-ground trees. Do I wait until the cicadas have come and gone and cut away damaged wood to graft onto good wood, even if it might be a bit late for some trees? I can’t imagine having the things attacking recently grafted branches, either the stock or the scion, and the grafts growing and thriving. Of course I can try to protect them, but depending on the tree that may be tough. Thoughts on this? Also, will they attack new grafts growing or do they only go after more lignified wood making recently growing grafts “safe” if they are on larger wood with bark grafts, etc.?
For fruit this year: I haven’t finished all my pruning yet and I’m wondering if we will lose fruit as well this year and maybe I should prune off thinner wood with buds in favor of larger spurred wood they might not go after. @scottfsmith , do you remember losing fruit from the wood being weakened?
For fruit next year: Does it make sense to immediately prune off damaged/weak wood as soon as they are gone to give the tree time to have another good flush and develop new undamaged fruiting wood for 2022?
I know it is probably all a big experiment, but I didn’t have trees and didn’t even really garden back then, but I do remember how much damage we had to a young Japanese maple and some smaller trees.
It should be easy to wrap grafts, there is not much wood to wrap. They don’t attack green wood.
I didn’t have much fruiting in the last wave in 2004 so not much data on that. Re: pruning the main thing is to not prune as hard as you might otherwise. I am going to finish my pruning after the deluge so I can keep the undamaged and remove the damaged.
Last time I pruned off most of the damaged wood, I only kept the things that were key scaffolds. They all healed up OK, it doesn’t set the tree back as much as you might think.
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I didn’t even think of this when I ordered my haskaps, gooseberries and black raspberries to plant this spring. will they bother new plants like these? I’ve read that they only lay eggs in brown wood but I guess I’m hoping the stems will be mostly green and they will be avoided by the cicadas. thoughts?
I think they like branches that are a little thicker than anything you’ll have on a new haskap or bramble. Freshly planted fruit trees are probably a bigger concern. Doubt you’ll have an issue but if you want to be extra safe you can buy some mosquito type mesh to cover them with for a couple weeks. It’s cheap.
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They are here in Arlington, VA in force. Probably one per square foot on a lot of the sidewalks and always flying into me when I try to walk the dog.
Bushes, small trees, even my pepper plants are littered with shells.
The rain is washing the dead ones and shells down into the gutters beneath the trees.
They’ve been noisy for a few days and just started laying eggs yesterday. They are slicing up even 2 inch thick trunks. What was all that stuff about pencil-thick branches - they didn’t get the memo. The wet spots show where the sap is leaking from the egg-laying. There were a half dozen here but some flew off when I got close with the camera.
Surround is on pretty good I thought but seems to have no effect, oh well.
I have nets on the two persimmons I have in ground, but it is 1/4 mesh and they are getting in (or under). Their favorite seems to be the pears. I can shake an 8 foot tall bushy seckel pear tree I have and have probably a hundred fly out. Ugh.
Good news? Well, the birds and squirrels are so stuffed on cicadas they are leaving everything else alone, including the Girardi mulberry they usually find pretty irresistible.
I didn’t do as much dormant pruning as usual, thinking it might be a good year for more summer pruning. I think I’ll see how the trees look in a few weeks and try to prune away the parts that look the worst and hope to get enough growth and new fruit buds set by fall to make next year reasonably productive. Pretty depressing.
How’s everyone else fairing?
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I am going to try Surround to see if it discourages them at least some.
They’re out in full force and I only netted a couple things. Will probably pay the price.
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Surround is not going to completely stop them but I hope it slows them down at least… I have my tree bottom branches well-covered and will know in a few weeks if I get less damage than 17 years ago. @zendog let us know if you find any egg laying slits in the Surround covered branches. Showing up and just checking it out is fine, they can do all they want of that. Just don’t lay eggs there!
I netted all of the trees I didn’t want to lose any limbs on since they were young. Maybe a dozen trees total. I might end up wishing I had netted more.
I didn’t spray a few of my bigger trees with Surround, the mulberry and the nuts. It will be interesting to compare the damage I get on those with the trees I put Surround on.
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